Mapping the Design journey

Where the world seems to be rejoicing at the launch of the Apple iPad, Adobe isn’t happy with Apple. Adrian Ludwig, Adobe’s Group Manager for Flash Platform Product Marketing issued a statement on his blog about the new product yesterday. The new product and Apple iPhone do not support Flash. And that makes the Flash Platform Marketing team at Adobe unhappy. Apple may have it’s reasons but Adobe thinks that this limits the users from multitasking on the web.

Ludwig stated that, “It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple’s DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.

If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab — not to mention the millions of other sites on the web — I’ll be out of luck.

Adobe and more than 50 of our partners in the Open Screen Project are working to enable developers and content publishers to deliver to any device, so that consumers have open access to their favorite interactive media, content, and applications across platform, regardless of the device that people choose to use.”

Earlier this month, Google’s Nexus One joined the Open Screen Project and introduced a Flash Player on it’s phone. Right now Google is Apple’s bigger competitor. Apple should be worried about this. And we think it would be strategic if Apple’s iPad offered Flash compatibility because the online world is a little limiting without Flash.

FCC – Federal Communications Commission recently revealed plans of using broadband to ‘help with America’s national energy independence and energy efficiency goals.’ In an address to the public at the Clean-tech Investor Summit, Nick Sinai FCC Energy and Environment Director uncovered the governments plans on how broad and advanced communications in America can help reduce our carbon footprint.

He highlighted two key areas where broadband and advanced communications can make the biggest impact:

1. efforts in modernizing and updating the electric grid
2. unlocking energy data to promote innovation in the smart home and smart building

In his address he talked about making real-time energy information accessible to consumers and consumer-authorized third parties. Google.org states that, “This kind of information could have a huge financial and environmental impact. Studies show that access to real-time usage data results in energy savings of up to 15%.” Sinai also discussed ways in which this information when combined with other measures could help in the creation of new products and services that may enable consumers to save and manage energy.

He stated in his address that, “I think we can all agree real-time information and communication is the way people and systems work today. You can check your frequent flyer miles, get real-time traffic alerts, or check your bank balances, all from your iPhone…Real-time feedback is what lets people make better energy decisions. Perhaps more importantly, real-time feedback in standard digital formats will allow companies to innovate new products and services that will help customers “set it and forget it,” saving energy and money on electric bills with a minimum of fuss.”

ColoRotate – now isn’t that a cool name? The plug-in itself is cooler. This new plug-in makes Photoshop even more exciting. It’s for Adobe Photoshop CS 4 and allows users to use color in multiple dimensions. Basically, it is a 3 dimensional color picker and editor that works with Photoshop, it will let you perceive and project colors in the same way that our brain does. With this plug-in you can work ‘with colors in 3D, in real-time, and in a way that matches how our minds process color’.

The ColoRotate site describes the product as, “a rainbow of benefits:

ColoRotate gives you the freedom to let your imagination fly.

Intuitive: In 3D, you can quickly see the multidimensional nature of your colors and the relationships between colors in a way that matches how your eye and brain perceive color.

Agile: Change your colors one at a time, blend two colors together, or transform a full palette of colors all at once with contrast and color joysticks — adjustments that previously have been beyond your reach.

Reliable: Take the guesswork out of setting up color harmonies or color contrasts by adjusting the distances between colors in 3D.

Efficient: Use ColoRotate’s quick drag-and-drop to adjust hue, brightness, and saturation. Import and export several formats, load from an image, or preview colorblindness. Soon, you’ll be able to save even more time with our Photoshop Plugin.

Piggyback: Browse themes created by the community, or search by tag, title, or creator to discover new color ideas.

Community: Post your palettes, and tag palettes to engage with the ColoRotate community, or discussions. In the future, look for features like comments and ratings.”

This is the last part (part 3) of the interview series with Mass GTUG Co-founder Monika Adamczyk. In the interview with Amvona, Monika highlighted her views on Google Wave, her involvement with Mass GTUG, CrisisCamp and MacoTech Inc. and she presented her views on the future of the web. For those interested Massachusetts Google Technology User Group (Mass GTUG) is open to anyone interested in Google Technologies. Like the name suggests it is a User group for Google technology enthusiasts.

Anyone can join the group, attend meetings and participate in discussions. Mass GTUG has a Google group and a site. They also have Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin pages.Talking about Google Wave and other similar platforms Monika commented that, “My personal opinion about Google Wave has been positive so far. I was present at the Google I/O 2009 when it was first demoed to the public and I immediately saw a lot of potential for it as real time collaboration and content delivery platform.” When asked if she thought that the Google Wave platform will change online communication Monika remarked that,”Absolutely. There is a growing demand for robust, flexible and real time communication tools and Google Wave is certainly filling that niche even in the current beta version.” In the interview Monika defined her role as the organizer and co-founder of the Mass GTUG. She manages the group, organizes monthly meetings and events, maintains the group website, posts announcements etc. In short she pretty much does everything ‘necessary to keep the group running’.

A couple of months ago we introduced our readers to Google Wave and described how Google was pushing this platform forward. Monika is an active Google Wave user and during the interview she described the time she has spent exploring Google Wave and the work she has done. She states that, “I have been an active user of the platform from the very beginning and done some Google Wave API development (robots, gadgets etc). I have also spent time investigating the Federation Protocol and open source version of Google Wave Federation Server that is available from http://www.waveprotocol.org/.I am also an active member of an a Federal Wave project whose primary goal is to develop an interagency, crowd sourced effort to promote Wave as an integrated platform for communication and collaboration within federal government agencies. We have presence on a number of social networks from Google Wave (Google Wave account required to access the wave), a few wikis (most of them closed to public except for https://defensemetawiki.cape.osd.mil/Gov2Gov that is open to both government employees and government contractors), Facebook, GovLoop and others.”

When discussing the future of the world wide web (www) Monika remarked that, “Web (as in WWW) is just a small part of modern communication platform and more and more often it merges its functionality with other technologies that are being used by public for daily activities and information exchange.It is certainly here to stay and continue evolving, utilizing the latest technologies as they get developed. There will certainly be continued growth of mobile systems accessible from cell phones, hand held devices allowing us to not only look up information but also perform a wide range of tasks (from e.g. paying daily fees such as parking car, vending machine purchases to receiving last minute notifications that may affect the decisions we make).”

We agree with Monika that the web is transforming. As new devices, gadgets and other technological innovations come into play the world of the web will keep on changing. We would like to thank Monika for taking out the time to answer our questions and for introducing us to Mass GTUG. Monika is also the owner and founder of Massachusetts based tech company Maco tech Inc. This boutique firm specializes in software design and development, provides a business analysis and project management services.

Yes, Jobs unveiled the new product. All the speculations were right it is an Apple Tablet and is called the iPad. He claims that it is better than any other laptop + mobile device out there. It has features of an e-reader but the best part is it’s colored. You can flip it around. Job says that it is so much more capable than a laptop and a phone. It allows you to have music on it and even watch Youtube. You can stream videos, have tv channels and much more.

The device looks amazing and is incredibly hi-res. You can flick through emails and photos just like iPhone. In many ways it is a giant iPhone but with many more features. It even has Google Maps on it.

Speculations have started whether or not Bob Dylan is going to make an appearance at the event. Engadget has revealed that they are playing the electric version of ‘Baby Let Me Follow You Down’. Twit Pic lost their video for a few minutes but the live podcast is still on. Apparently, the WiFi at the Apple store has also gone down.

For those of us who couldn’t be there for the infamous launch. Twit.tv is showing a live broadcast. Blogs like Gizmodo and Engadget are covering the live launch and bringing minute to minute updates on their sites too.

If you are interested in watching the live launch tune in to Twit.tv here.

Information

Sun Zaccur is a Designer, Brand strategist and Tech Blogger. She has experience of working as the Editor-in-chief for Amvona.com and is the Boston Technology Examiner for Examiner.com. This Blog provides an insight into Sun's work.